Kensington Turnpike Trust drawings

Ride into Regency London with 30 of Joseph Salway's detailed plans and elevations of streets in the care of the Kensington Turnpike Trust.

Curator's introduction

to 30 superb drawings of Regency London

Charging a fee for travelling into central London by road is by no means a modern phenomenon. By the mid-eighteenth century, anyone entering the city had to pay their way through the numerous gates and tolls erected by Turnpike Trusts. The term ‘turnpike’ derives from the spiked barricade used for defence in medieval times.

Turnpike Trusts were established by Parliament to raise revenue to remedy the increasingly ruinous state of many roads. The first began operating on the Great North Road in 1663. Less than a century later, turnpikes had become so widespread – and unpopular – that Pope could complain: